The Worst Way To Lose A Job

Starring in sex videos could hurt your career (if you're not a professional porn star)

Back in 2009, a woman, whom we will call Jane Doe, was dating a Maryland college student named Christopher Scott, whom we will call a gigantic jerk. Scott "manipulated [Doe] into making a video while they were having sex," according to a police document via Smoking Gun. He shot it using the camera in his MacBookPro. After they broke up in 2010, Scott, 20, posted the 26:51-minute long video to a user-submitted porn site, XTube.com, including Doe's job and hometown in the title. The now 24-year-old Doe found out about it this year when she got a call from her employer, who awkwardly informed her of the video's existence and then asked for her resignation.

Doe "learned that the video was on many sites on the Web" and "that many people she knows found out about it." She went to the police in October, and their Internet Crimes Against Children unit launched an investigation.

When law enforcement went to his house, or rather Scott's mom's house, with a warrant, Scott was quick to confess, saying he posted the video because he was "depressed" about the break-up, reports the Delaware County Times. The police found the video on Scott's MacBookPro, along with "several files with titles indicative of child pornography," and drug paraphernalia. They've charged him with four misdemeanors, reports the Smoking Gun.

The way the law is, Scott's more likely to get into big legal trouble over the child porn than the posting of the sex video. Meanwhile, his university already seems to be distancing itself from him. The Smoking Gun linked to a page identifying Scott as a lacrosse player at Stevenson, but that page has since been pulled down.

As I always, always, always say, don't make sex videos unless you're a porn star who gets paid lots of money to do it. Stories like these suggest that we should be embracing a new definition of safe sex: Make sure a condom is on and the laptop is off.

Hat tip: Janet Novack, for sending me the Smoking Gun story and including that kicker in her email.